Two former Ionians featured Thursday on PBS 'Michigan Out-of-Doors'

Wednesday

Dec 12, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 12, 2012 at 10:40 PM

Long-time trapper filmed by Ionia H. S. grad

By Karen Bota

The love of trapping has kept a former Ionia man at his hobby for 50 years, and drew another former Ionian to document it. A segment on Richard (Elmer) Gregory will run at 8 p.m. Thursday on the PBS television show "Michigan Out-of-Doors," produced by Jordan Browne.

Gregory, 62, now of Stanton, began trapping muskrats and mink as a 12-year-old at Coon School. He said his half-century of continuous trapping has never been about the money; it's about the sport.

"Water trapping is very challenging, hard work. It's a lot of the fun out on the creek bank," said Gregory, while standing in the water trapping. "It's the love of putting my boots on and getting in the creek, finding signs, like a kid on Christmas opening up a present. I hurry to get to the creek to see if there's a rat in the trap."

If he has a good day, the hard work starts when he gets home, Gregory said. That's when he works with the pelts: combs them out, skins them and puts them up on drying frames.

"It's a lot of manual labor, but I've always enjoyed doing it," he said. "Thank goodness I can still do it."

Browne, an associate producer for "Michigan Out-of-Doors," approached Gregory for the segment because the show features trapping a couple of times a year. Now of Grand Ledge, Browne is a 2006 Ionia High School graduate and a 2010 graduate of Michigan State University.

"It's a dying sport, and it's not as easy to get good trapping stories," said Browne. "He's trapped the same area for so long, and I was intrigued by the longevity. Going with a guy who's done it for so long, everything he says teaches you something. The things he considers basic knowledge is great information for the novice trapper."

Browne shot the video with Gregory at the spot where Gregory said he "cut his teeth" on trapping.

"The particular ditch we trapped was the ditch he's been trapping for 50 years. He trapped there on his way to school with his brother," said Browne. "A lot of times, ditches like that don't even last that many years in a row."

Nowadays, there aren't many young people who want to trap, said Gregory.

"A lot of that is the work involved," he said. "I never looked at it as work."

Still standing in the creek, Gregory noted he just watched a couple of deer walk the bank.

" I do it for the love of the sport and being out in the wild, part of Mother Nature," he said.